The Heart of Whiteness: An Analytical Essay

"Peachy keen" is not a phrase that comes to mind when thinking of race relations in the United States. In fact, this continent has been tainted with a prodigious amount of racism ever since the white, Puritan folks arrived on American shores. The natives were considered sub-human by many of the European settlers, marking the beginning of racism, bigotry and sheer ignorance in the New World. One book, The Heart of Whiteness by Robert Jensen, chronicles the roots of racism and its evolution into a closeted mentality, which still holds a clench-fisted power over many non-white citizens. It is this subtle power relationship that Jensen contends is the reason why the United States is a white supremacist nation.

The pithy 95-page social and personal commentary begins with Jensen's descriptive assertion, "I AM WHITE." He goes onto to reconfirm his whiteness, "My skin is pale. I am a Caucasian...I'm as white as white gets in the United States of America. I am a white-bred, white-bread white boy." From that point forward The Heart of Whiteness offers a churlishly crisp explanation of moments of unintentional racist behavior in Jensen's own personal life as well as an assortment of examples throughout American history. During the course of the book a variety of emotions bubble up to the forefront of the mind, and at times the reality and undeniable truth being viewed by the eyes and processed by the brain cause uncomfortable physical effects (I.e., a turned stomach, a ball in the throat, etc.).

While the commonly held racist beliefs of yester-century often ring true in modern forms, the most disturbing aspect is the power and oppression that grew from such beliefs. An entire group of people were forced to submit to social conventions that held them equal to animals. Animals!? Fellow human beings were cast as savage, uncivilized beasts due to the shade of their skin. With a majority-held perspective like that it is easy to understand how power relationships managed to work their way into the fold. The master/animal relationship worked to destroy the self-worth and free will of many non-white citizens as looking at someone the wrong way could end in bias driven violence. "He looked at me funny," was often enough justification to get acquitted of whatever charges ever surfaced.

But how has the primitive racism of the past managed to survive and remain powerful in the modern day? It simply chose to become anonymous, closeted and hidden under a thin veil of blissful ignorance. One example given in The Heart of Whiteness takes place at an assembly that was focused on explaining the new racism in America. The audience was primarily black as well as a good portion of the panel speakers. Robert Jensen was one of the few whites in attendance, but he spoke of how he felt superior to one of the other speakers. The speaker was Les Payne (a black scholar/author) and as Payne approached the podium, Jensen felt this odd thought creep into his brain. He mentioned that even though he knew Payne's field of work, and that Payne was a much smarter man than him, he couldn't help but feel as if he was superior to Payne.

The reason, Jensen contends, was due to the notion of white's being the status quo for greatness being driven into his mind from a young age and reinforced in the modern day, albeit subtly. Nonetheless, when the problem is subtle it makes it much harder to not only recognize but to correct. Subtle power relationships are the hardest to take a stand against and they are not limited to just race.

Another account in The Heart of Whiteness portrays Jensen during his time spent as a journalist. A non-white woman was a new hire and was having trouble adjusting to the pressure ridden environment of the newsroom. None of the men, most of whom were white, bothered to try and help her make the transition that they all had initial trouble trying to make. Instead they often spoke of her as if she suffered from a mental handicap and waited for the day she got fired. In hindsight, Jensen recalls, their actions were subconsciously driven by the fact that she was a woman, but more importantly a black woman. They did not want her to succeed and knew that by simply leaving her on her own she would eventually fail.

While the racism in this country nowadays isn't so much the result of laws that perpetuate the ignorant mentality, it is the mentality held by regular citizens; a mentality that, like a cockroach, has survived the nuclear explosion that was the Civil Rights movement. The analogy of the nuclear blast isn't meant to demean the Civil Rights movement, but like a nuclear bomb it shook things up offering a clean slate to start anew. However, that clean slate has been tainted by an even more devastating form of racism, "closet racism". Many people, whether they consciously know it or not, have a warped racist perspective that affects their behavior on a daily basis.

The main reason for closet racism is the very thing Jensen felt in both of the previously mentioned examples: a sense of superiority due to a difference in race. A good example of this can be found in Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton's article, The Perpetuation of the Underclass. More often than not most ghettoes or poverty stricken areas are populated by a majority of non-whites. It is this form of segregation that in turn fosters the belief that whites are superior to non-whites. From watching the news or taking the wrong exit many whites view these kinds of areas as the low and darker sectors of society. It is no surprise then that the beliefs held about a certain area are transferred and used to stereotype the majority of people who occupy those areas.

With irrational mental connections, like the above, it makes it easier to ignore the true problems of impoverished areas such as poor educational and healthcare facilities among many other lacking opportunities that do not exist in white suburban neighborhoods. By shoving aside the real issues of poverty and race discrimination we as a society do nothing to help fellow human beings, causing the subtle means of segregation of non-whites to underdeveloped areas to continue. Not only does segregation exist but it exists because stereotypes are widely held beliefs that perpetuate fear and hatred for people based on irrational mental connections.

Stereotypes are truly devastating vehicles of ignorance, confusion (the root of fear) and minimal understanding of race and humanity. Studies and personal testimonies have proven conclusively that certain employers will often choose a candidate for a job position using stereotypical prejudices. The reason for this is because of racial stereotypes that put a sense of doubt into the employers mind about non-white citizens. When weighing the decision of who to hire these stereotypes will often cause the employer to lean towards a white candidate due to the unfounded social convention that they will be a better employee. The concept is explored in Chapter 4 of the book, Intersecting Inequalities, but more so in the article The Meaning and Significance of Race.

This disadvantage in the job market as a result of stereotypes is directly responsible for perpetuating stereotypes as non-whites are forced out of necessity to take blue-collar or service jobs that will pay their bills, but prevent them from escaping the unfortunate reality of the ghetto. By being forced to remain in impoverished areas it causes non-whites to adapt to a different way of living as explained in Elijah Anderson's book, Code of the Street. The book illustrates the stark and ugly nature of the ghettoes in Philadelphia. Ironically, further up the street from the area being discussed in Code of the Street is an overly affluent neighborhood that goes about their daily life knowing that monsters and social demogorgons are only a few blocks away.

The reason for the ill-conceived beliefs discussed in Code of Street are the result of a drastically different set of prescribed ideals held by non-white citizens living in underdeveloped areas. Most are afraid of the police and authority figures for obvious reasons, and therefore police themselves by a strict and unwritten 'code of the street'. "Geography is destiny," is an ancient quote that stills holds the same truth today as it did hundreds of years ago. People of impoverished areas are forced out of nature to act a certain way and by doing so it becomes their destiny to be viewed by others in different sets of latitude and longitude coordinates as vile creatures of necessity and nature.

The Heart of Whiteness makes the argument that because of the political and societal system, which we live in-a system that condemns non-white people to live a substandard life by means of nasty stereotypes-that our country is a white supremacist nation. This is an angering accusation that is hard to swallow for a white person, but if chewed thoroughly it is hard to deny the truth of it. All one has to do is think of instances in their own personal life where they saw a non-white person and quietly made assumptions based on their appearance. Think about the instances when in the company of all white friends and the jokes made about people of different race and ethnicity. Sure they may seem harmless, but what they represent is a mentality of superiority; a supremacist outlook that those who are non-white are not of equal status.

To say racism is limited to just whites is as ignorant as racism itself, but the beliefs commonly held by non-whites about whites are ones of anger, fear and a feeling of decades of oppression. The biggest argument that Jensen is often faced with when speaking about the social undertow that is closet racism, is the question of how non-whites would structure society if they were the ones in power. Would they oppress whites and treat them as subservient? There is no way of knowing, but the point is not to have a society ran by only one group of people. In order for equality to exist, political and social structure must be a cornucopia of all ethnicities. While we as a society have come a long way from the days of slavery and violent actions like the murder of Emmett Till, we still hold onto a mentality that must be stomped out.

It is common for whites to feel disgust in knowing that non-whites are mistreated and held to lower standards by society; however, it is common for whites to simply feel content with being aware of that knowledge. Most are not willing to take the action needed to restore equality to society, mainly out of fear that their accomplishments and life achievements will be proven to be the result of their racial status. Fear is the primary reason for the ongoing mentality that keeps non-whites as inferior people. Fear perpetuates stereotypes and fear keeps whites from taking the proper action to do away with the irrational beliefs that lead to a staggered social structure. In conclusion, fear is the heart of whiteness.